The victory of the overthrowing army shocked the feudal lords and clan daimyo from all over Honshu.
The new army that the shogunate spent two years and countless money building was defeated.
The daimyo from various places who originally supported Edo suddenly slowed down.
With the surrender of the daimyo west of Edo, the shock in various places became even greater, and the overthrow of the Tokugawa army was even able to accept those close to the feudal clan.
This gave everyone hope, and it seemed that they could join the overthrown army.
As a daimyo, as long as his territory is still there, it is not necessary to change his master's house.
After hundreds of years, the current shogunate has long been close to the feudal lords but not close to the feudal lords, and the names of generations are even more distant from each other.
In the past, these daimyo rallied around the shogunate because the shogunate gave them benefits.
But now the benefits promised by the overthrowing army seem to be even greater.
The most important thing is that China has not expressed its position yet.
Many famous names have long been in contact with the Celestial Dynasty and know how powerful the Celestial Dynasty is.
In Edo City, Wen Yanyuan was drinking heavily, and his plan to assist the shogunate was rejected.
The order given to him from above was to stand still. The most important thing was that the president sent Qi Bin to take charge of the overall situation of the Japanese country, which made him feel bad.
It's obvious that he didn't do a good job in this area. The president may have a problem with himself.
He has always followed the path of seeking stability, maintaining the rule of the shogunate, maintaining the current status quo, and preserving the interests of the Renaissance Army in Japan.
But who knew that Jiading would be seriously ill at such a young age? The ensuing succession battle made Wen Yanyuan feel a deep crisis.
It seems that the civil war in Japan is about to break out.
And he knew how corrupt the shogunate was, and there were many problems in the new army they established.
Even though the Renaissance Army sent instructors to help them train, the middle and high-level officers of the New Army were all second-generation ancestors of the vassal. How could these people lead this army well?
Just like the Manchu Qing army back then, even if they bought guns and artillery from foreigners, they couldn't defeat the Renaissance Army.
Just a few days ago, Wen Yanyuan sent two doctors to visit Tokugawa Iadasa.
The situation is very bad, and the shogun probably only has a few days left.
In the past few days, the successor of Tokugawa Iesada has finally been determined.
The gentle, shrewd and capable Tokugawa Iemo was appointed as the Right Guard General and became the heir to the shogunate.
Can this thirteen-year-old kid turn the tide in the current crisis situation of the shogunate?
Establishing the successor to the shogunate at this time will only alienate the Hitotsubashi faction from the shogunate.
In Jiangning City, Dong Shuheng had just inspected the gun factory of Huai Ke Group.
"Mr. Krupp, I heard that the British have made great breakthroughs in cannon-making technology. Their new warships have used large-caliber breech-loaded cannons," Dong Shuheng said.
"Yes, President, I understand that we have been improving the technology of breech-loading guns. The good news is that our special steel project has made a breakthrough, and soon you will be able to see artillery with larger caliber and more durability." Xiao Ke
Lupp said proudly.
"Very good, then I will wait for your good news. I just saw the 305mm main gun you built for the Zhenhai-class destroyer. It is very good. You have kept your promise and completed the task on time." Dong Shuheng said affirmatively.
The construction of Zhenhai-class destroyers at Lushun Shipyard is nearing completion.
The final weapon installation and debugging stages are now underway.
The design team plans to install two large-caliber main guns on this 3,000-ton destroyer to deal with European ironclads it may encounter in the future.
In addition to the craftsmanship, the casting of artillery also has very high requirements for steel. The requirements for naval guns are even higher than those for coastal defense guns.
Currently, the Fuxing Army has five major steel plants, among which Sichuan Panzhihua Steel Plant specializes in the development and production of special steel.
There is a strategic cooperative relationship between Huai·Ke Group's steel plant in Jiangning and Panzhihua Iron Plant.
Because Huaike's steel is mainly supplied to arsenals, it relies more on special steel.
After the invention of smokeless gunpowder, weapons have higher requirements for steel.
Smokeless gunpowder is more powerful, so the strength of the weapon will naturally need to be improved. Smokeless gunpowder is also less corrosive than black powder. These are all issues that need to be considered.
Now, as long as the Renaissance Army's military technology has a good direction of development, it should be able to maintain its leading position.
It feels like the news coming back from the European intelligence station is that smokeless gunpowder has not yet been used in Europe.
Although due to the influence of the Renaissance Army, they also began to use breech-loading guns and breech-loading cannons on a large scale.
But black powder is still black powder after all, and its efficiency can only promote the development of weapons to this level.
They cannot develop gas-guided automatic weapons no matter what.
The Renaissance Army's gas-guided machine guns have already begun debugging.
Dong Shuheng had already seen two finished products in Dafeng's arsenal before.
One is air-cooled and the other is water-cooled.
The designers of the arsenal obviously also realized that the heat dissipation of the machine gun was a critical issue.
Dong Shuheng did not have any better suggestions in this regard. He just required that the design of the machine gun must be simple and durable.
The replacement of the barrel is usually done by the machine gunner during combat, so it must be easy to operate.
We can't think about it from the arsenal or the perspective of technicians, we have to think about it from the perspective of soldiers.
The quality of a weapon ultimately depends on the soldiers on the front line.
Today, Dong Shuheng and Junior Krupp chatted a lot, mainly to spur Junior Krupp to continue to make breakthroughs in the design of artillery.
He even shared some information obtained from Europe with the design institute of the Huai·Ke Arsenal.
Much of the information the Renaissance Army had on the development of European weapons was obtained from the battlefield in Kansas.
Both the North and the South have a lot of imported latest weapons and equipment.
This is simply an exhibition area for weapons from all nations.
During this inspection, many problems were discovered. As soon as they arrived in Jiangning, Dong Shuheng already felt worried.
The rapid expansion of factories has brought many new contradictions.
In the past, during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, the main contradiction was ultimately the contradiction between people and land.
This is a cycle that has been going on for thousands of years.
To put it bluntly, the conflict between landlords and farmers is because there are more people and less land.
Generally speaking, in the early days of the feudal dynasty, the relationship between landlords and peasants was still very harmonious.
At that time, because there was sufficient land, most farmers were homesteaders, and landlords would be friendly to their tenant farmers. At that time, there was a lot of land and a small population, so the population became the meat and potatoes of the land.
Now the Renaissance Army has solved the land problem, but through expansion rather than through war to reduce the population.
In today's rural areas, the conflicts between landlords and farmers have long been greatly alleviated.
Harsh landlords simply cannot find tenants. Tenants who live in poverty can choose to work in the city or sign up to immigrate.
But a new contradiction has arisen. Farming land in rural areas requires a large number of people.
And urban development factories also require a large number of people.
There were a lot of conflicts between the two sides over the competition for labor.
Dong Shuheng has a solution to this problem. That is to change the agricultural production model.
Gradually realize industrialized production of agriculture and reduce the manpower required for land cultivation.
Why is Dong Shuheng so anxious to build a tractor instead of a car? Apart from the fact that diesel engines are simpler to manufacture than gasoline engines.
Another reason is that diesel engines are more useful in the agricultural field.
For thousands of years, people in China have relied on livestock to assist in farming activities.
However, after all, the role of livestock is only limited to a part of agricultural activities, and the efficiency of livestock is limited after all.
Agricultural production still mainly relies on manpower.
At the beginning of his service, Dong Shuheng was still controlling the price of grain to prevent it from falling, in order to prevent the so-called low price of grain from hurting farmers.
But since last year, Dong Shuheng has begun instructing the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture to lower the purchase price of grain, thereby lowering the market price of grain.
This is forcing rural landowners to transform.
They are called landlords because they have more land and the food they produce is mainly circulated on the market.
The price of food fell, but the price of other industrial products did not.
The land rent of tenant farmers is strictly restricted, and the cost of hiring labor is also increasing. If the hiring cost is low, people will go to the city to work or immigrate.
The current household registration policy has long abolished the distinction between craftsmen, merchants, farmers, etc.
People can move freely between cities and rural areas and choose the life they think is better.
Wage income is the main means for landlords and factory owners to compete for workers.
Now the price of food has dropped and workers' wages have risen.
Force landlords to reduce labor and improve production efficiency.
At this time, launching a promotion plan for agricultural machinery will achieve twice the result with half the effort.
One tractor can support more than a dozen workers.
At that time, another agricultural machinery subsidy plan will be launched.
I believe those landowners will figure this out.
Another contradiction is that between factory owners and workers.
As more and more people move to the city to work, workers have become the largest population group in the city.
After these people took root in the city, they formed a new class of citizens.
Now under the rule of the Fuxing Army, there are still a large number of state-owned factories as examples. Private factories have a reference and cannot excessively exploit workers.
In addition, in the past two years, everyone has just had enough to eat and is relatively easy to satisfy. Therefore, the contradiction between factory owners and workers has not yet emerged.
But as time goes by, everyone will gradually realize this unfair distribution between factory owners and workers.
For example, during this inspection, Dong Shuheng discovered that many factories did not have adequate labor protection measures, or did not have them at all.
This makes it easy for workers to suffer work-related injuries during the work process.
However, the factory’s compensation for workers’ injuries is very low.
This has caused many workers to suffer work-related injuries, putting the entire family in trouble.
Dong Shuheng was determined to introduce a labor protection bill, but during the investigation, businessmen collectively opposed it.
It is true that many industries are struggling to compete with their foreign counterparts. If so many protective measures are added and the cost continues to rise, then it is inevitable that they will not be able to compete with others.
Dong Shuheng is also in a dilemma. If he protects the interests of workers, the factory will close down and the workers will lose their jobs.
For workers, keeping their jobs is definitely the most important thing.
To put it bluntly, factories all over the world are squeezing workers and cutting costs.
No one has a better way to improve productivity.
The solution Dong Shuheng can think of now is to promote the use of electricity and diesel machinery to replace steam engines and improve production efficiency.
The promotion of electricity requires massive government investment.
Fortunately, Dong Shuheng still has some money in his hands. In addition, he can also absorb some private capital.
However, with the emergence of the urban citizen class and the promotion of education, the people's awakening is bound to become faster and faster, and their demands will become more and more numerous.
New problems and contradictions will continue to arise.
People will not always be content with their current level of food, and their needs will gradually increase.
People always forget the difficult times in the past and take their current comfortable life for granted.
Just like you can't tell a person in the information age what the old society was like when they were hungry and cold, and then persuade them to be content, it will be difficult for them to have empathy.
The government office of Jiangning Mansion is located on the edge of Xuanwu Lake in the outer city. It is a newly built three-story brick and stone structure house with white walls and black tiles. It is very simple.
Dong Shuheng was currently discussing the economic construction of Jiangning Mansion with a group of officials in Jiangning Mansion.
Li Cunxun has built Jiangning well in the past two years, whether it is business or culture. Now Jiangning Mansion seems to be regaining its glory as an economic and cultural center in Jiangnan.
"President, Jiangning's rural areas have indeed experienced some decline in the past two years. With the expansion of Jiangning City, a large number of people have concentrated in the city."
"We did statistics during the census at the end of last year. Now the permanent population of Jiangning City has reached 1.2 million. Part of it is brought by Shuyuan City. But more of them are migrant workers from rural areas.
The factories in Pukou and Jiangning and the dock areas along the river require a large number of workers, and even the academies in the inner city need many ordinary people to do cleaning work."
"Most of these people live in the city permanently. Fortunately, the people in the factory area live in the two satellite cities of Jiangning City and Pukou City. Otherwise, the pressure on Jiangning City will become even greater."
“Correspondingly, the population in surrounding rural areas has been reduced by nearly half, and the problem of insufficient agricultural labor has emerged. Now many landowners, including those who have more land, can no longer find day laborers during the busy farming season and have to come from the south.
Looking for day laborers in the mountainous areas of Anhui."
Next, Li Cunxun introduced to Dong Shuheng their statistics on the changes in the situation of rural landlords and farmers in Jiangning's surrounding areas in recent years.
…
Dong Shuheng once lectured on the pastoral survey method at a grassroots official meeting. He told those officials to learn to go deep into the fields and use survey and statistics methods to find and solve problems.
This is a very practical method. In fact, many famous and capable officials in history will use this method.
Just sitting in the government office is not enough to manage the place.
"Well, the data you provided is very good. Jiangning Prefecture is a metropolis, and this population flow phenomenon will be more obvious. I call this phenomenon "urbanization." But if you think about it, if there are no people farming, everyone will
Is this okay if everyone goes to the city to work?"
"This will definitely not work. Agriculture is the cornerstone of social development at any time. Food and clothing are people's most basic needs."
"To solve this problem is actually very simple. The key is to improve the efficiency of agriculture and use a large number of mechanical tools in agricultural production. In this way, more land can be cultivated with fewer people."
"One thing we need to understand clearly is that we have to ensure the amount of cultivated land. How much land supports how many people can be calculated. So as long as the amount of cultivated land is guaranteed, then the number of people engaged in agricultural activities is not the focus." Dong Shuheng said.
.
In previous dynasties, people were bound to the land as much as possible.
Confucian officials believed that there would be no stability without farmers. Therefore, merchants and craftsmen were classified as inferior in order to allow more people to engage in agricultural production and thus maintain the rule of the dynasty.
And Dong Shuheng told them so much, which means that we don't need to care about what the common people do.
As long as you know the total population, how much food such a large population needs, how much land is needed to produce this food, and then ensure that this much land can be cultivated.
"Cun Xun, next we will choose several places across the country to promote the use of agricultural machinery, and I am going to use Jiangning as a point."
"Thank you, President." Li Cunxun said quickly with a smile.
ps: Recently, we are planning to completely solve the problem of the Japanese country, and then brew a wave of explosions. Finally, I still need to ask for votes!